No Left Turns

The speeches

I watched the speeches by Gov. Palin and Sen. McCain. Both were good, impressive in their own ways, but Palin’s was the better of the two. I think she has the ability to connect with "ordinary people" in ways that McCain (with his extraordinary biography) can’t.

Neither matches Obama’s soaring eloquence, but I don’t think they have to. Both McCain and Palin have a kind of authenticity about them. She comes across as a recognizeable and impressive middle class suburban type--I know them as swim team moms, and I like them.

McCain may not wear his religion on his sleeve, but he does his patriotism, in a powerful way. While it’s hard to think of him as humble, he can express himself in ways that makes it plausible. It’s a different kind of "communitarian" talk than Obama offers, and it may not resonate quite as well with bobos and their offspring, but you can’t hear the speech and not be moved by McCain’s presentation of his country as larger than himself.

I had the opportunity to chat with two groups of students about Gov. Palin’s speech. They are, for the most part, sold on Obama, and they’re not going to let go of their purchase. (I haven’t yet found a single argument against McCain that some of them aren’t prepared at least to make, if not necessarily to believe. The age issue looms large for them, and I don’t know if the evident vitality of Sen. McCain’s 96 year old mother will put it to rest. Of course, as far they they’re concerned, I’m old and pretty near death.) But back to Palin: the most interesting response came from some young women, who volunteered immediately and unconditionally that they liked her. Were she not "encumbered" by McCain and were they not sold on Obama, who knows? Others very much liked the extraordinary ordinariness of her family life. Again, not enough to push them off Obama....

I’ll be interested to see whether opinions change as the campaign progresses. I’m dubious, to say the least. Sen. Obama would have to betray them in an obvious and unmistakeable way--go bald? get wrinkles and love handles?--before they would throw him over.

Discussions - 13 Comments

Dave P.

No one is buying McCain's 'change' theme. It does not make sense. I will change republican problems by a return to republican causes and principles. Maybe it is: I will change corrupt republican policies with better republican policies. And he has signalled that it is change-lite, since the Palin pick is a wink and a nod to the base. So he is saying: I will change to better republican policies, but not change too much for neocons and evangelicals. That is completely out of sync with the country. The Palin pretty face and the McCain hero theme will create a bounce of about two weeks, until the bills need to be paid again.

Maybe Obama's hesitations are an exhibition of the virtues of prudence, that so many on this site give lectures on each day. They are marked by the caution of a youtube world capturing every syllable. And nothing, nothing could make Bush seem eloquent. He was a sputtering, empty headed dyslexic donkey of a speaker. He was literally a laughing-stock of the country by the last 2 years of his presidency. The history books will record that no one listened to a single word he said, or could stand to listen, except maybe his comments to the volleyball players.

From this site I learned the importance of commenting on the 'looks' of female political candidates. All of the eros/thumos comments and hot librarian looks of Palin. I wonder if when the bloggers show up at that campus for their little talk it will just be titillating comments on how turned on they are when they see Palin. But then it puzzles me why these same brilliant minds have not commented on Cindy McCain's outfit from the other night. She looked like a 'banana' dominatrix, or some evil queen out of a 'my little pony' video. Her outfit cost 300 grand. Better counter that with some quick shots of Palin in blood-soaked overalls skinning a moose.

Those young people who are sold on (or purchased by)Obama are going to sleep in on Nov 4 or find something better to do. A notoriously unreliable voting group. We're not worried about that age group - heads full of mush ("Yeah, dude, I like Obama cuz he's cool and he like speaks really good"). It's old people like me (46) who will be hitting the polls in a very reliable fashion.

I don't even want to know why wt has such an intimate knowledge of the way an evil queen in a "My Little Pony" video looks--to say nothing of the looks of a dominatrix in banana or any other fruity flavor. But that he has such knowledge and that it sits so close to the frontal lobe of his brain may be some unwitting indication of why it is that he seems to lack any real understanding of the word "eros." If he comes to our conference in October, I will do my best to endeavor to help him with that.

The so called "Youth-Vote" is a joke and as more of the real Barry starts coming out that the drive-by media has ignored as they try to destroy Palin (Which is backfiring)and the American Voters see real change "McCain/Palin08" vs phony Change Barry/OBiden, Nov. 4th will show how Palin Power works.

The Barry band will sleep in and fade away and it will be just another day for most Barry heads as the other half will riot and burn down all they can (they don't know any better) and all the pundits and talking heads will wonder what happened?

News flash; America is center right and calls a spade a spade and See's that "Progressive=Socialist/Marxist", ""Main stream Media= Bias left reporting" and so much more that the American people see, their eyes are open and Barry fools no one and Sarah Palin is the real deal for real change in Washington.

What outfit will you wear, Julie? Tell us about it. Tell us real slow. Maybe post some pictures of yourself next to a Harley or holding a gun. Yes, yes, that would be nice. The "My Little Pony" videos are right next to the "Hot Librarian" videos, and several of your site's bloggers have already pursued those points, to the edification of all mankind.

I’ve been wanting to write this for the last few days, and have finally worked up the courage, despite being a newcomer to NLT and a political neophyte.

I am growing disturbed by NLT increasingly allowing comments of simple ignorant, hateful abuse, especially those which have no real connection to the original post. I expect intelligent disagreement, even widely divergent viewpoints, but I also expect posted comments to contain courtesy and reason, and I see no need for profanity, even humorously intended, on either side.

I would expect to find comments like calling the President “a sputtering, empty headed dyslexic donkey of a speaker” or saying the wife of a candidate “looked like a 'banana' dominatrix, or some evil queen out of a 'my little pony' video” on sites like the Huffington Post, not here. It’s like criticizing FDR for being a "chain-smoking cripple", or making fat jokes about Bill Clinton. Not worhty of the level of discourse usually found here. JMHO.

Greetings from a Swim Team mom!! I just happened to meander to your post and thoroughly enjoyed it! I am a Republican woman who was seriously contemplating sitting this election out. Now,I no longer feel that way at all!
I am a working mom (nurse), wife, PTA worker, SWIM MOM, church worker and proud of it!
Sarah Palin's appointment tells me that John McCain is serious about continuing his reformer/maverick work. It ALMOST makes me think he has returned to the 2000 primary form that I really, really respected and was looking forward to supporting.
I am excited! I had a lady who works with me tell me Thursday that she has never voted Republican, but will in November. She volunteered this by starting out: "I know you are a Republican. I'm not, but I watched Sarah Palin's speech and I loved it". SHe is one voter who supported Hillary. How many more out there will come to this decision? Who knows, but it's going to be fun to watch.

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